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Some questionable advice in this thread.

1. Biggest rule is start ASAP and fail faster. If is isn't going to work, you 1) won't know unless you try, and 2) you need to know as soon as possibly, so no waiting to get started.
2. Second rule is consider yourself a pirate - if you are going to fail, you want to lose the least money possible, so torrent any necessary software, buy secondhand equipment, skip business registrations, use free invoice and quote templates, skip insurance, etc.

Consider the growth process an investment, not just in money/time, but also in legitimacy. If your idea does work, then growing means you also need to become more legit over time. Start buying your torrented software, get insurance, hire real web devs to make a good site, file for LLC, etc (not in this order, LLC -> bank account in business name goes first). The goal is to not spend money before you need to, and to become legit in an area just before your business requires it (e.g. if the next size of jobs will start requiring insurance, you want to get insurance just before you start hunting those accounts, not before).

This applies to taxes too btw - the current laws are written in a way that the penalties and fines are for returns that should have been filed but weren't. Most early-stage companies reinvest everything, so their returns zero out. If they zero out, there are no penalties and interest, so modern advice is don't bother filing until you actually start posting a profit.

There are other things too:

1. keep a time diary -> target your investments towards your biggest pain points per the diary
2. skip employees until you ABSOLUTELY MUST hire them (e.g. completion of your jobs will be unacceptably late). You will die an early death if you follow the advice of the other comment in here and hire early trying to be 'passive'.

... but we will get there when we get there.

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EDIT: fucking system nuked markdown for lists.

DOUBLE EDIT: for the love of god ignore anyone in here mentioning a business plan. That was the 'go-to' method for anyone who was born in the 80s or earlier, and was a requirement for bank or angel financing. Modern startups have to bootstrap since neither banks nor investors will back an unproven startup (here meaning without 'traction', your first customers, an email list, etc), so 'business plans' went the way of the dodo back in the mid-2000s.

Robbing and Killing paying pretty good lately

Do NOT incorporate, do NOT llc until you absolutely HAVE to. It costs money and they dgaf until you make over a certain amount. Fuck their taxes and fuck their fees.

This ALL depends on what you choose to do. Making products is one thing, selling services is another. I've run a business for 13 years. I can help you with any specifics but it requires specifics.

If you want to do a service you really don't need an llc unless you need insurance.

If your selling products it all depends on who to and how much and what kind.

When you have some ideas post them here and I will gladly help you through the whole system.

Try making an LLC subchapter-S

Your townhall, has a website, and you pay a small fee to incorporate.

Remember it's Earn, Spend, Tax for a business.

You do not actually want a business that makes you busy. So get some customers then get some workers.

Check if your town has free business guidance.

Simply starting a business (or getting a 1099) is a fantastic opportunity to write everything the fuck off.

My advice on this subject is: Don't be in California.

Especially don't be in Los Angeles.

go to the county clerk and open a fictitious business name then go to irs website and get an EIN for the FBN then go open a bank account for the fbn now you have a business it will cost like $40 for 5 years

Roto rooter.

Start with customers you kinda know so you don't have to worry about liability, you can expand from there. Offer discounts to customers who pay in cash so you don't have to report revenue to IRS. You can do a schedule C and report the credit card people the first couple of years and show a loss and reduce your income tax.

If you are doing a cleaning business know how long it's going to take and charge appropriately. Customer will ask you to do more and you will have to decide if it's worth it. If they have referrals then it might be worth the extra work.

And finally know how to get your money in small claims court from people who don't pay, it's easy.

While I am not that smart either, I can relate. I have been self employed since 2001, with a GED and a criminal record. This is what you do:
Get a local business license for the thing you want to do. It’s usually 120 a year or so.
Register your business name with the local county, state, whichever.
Get an accountant, preferably a CPA.
Most small businesses fail within two years, due to accounting.
Find grassroots means to advertise your services. The internet is big in this.

Here’s the real deal. I will tell you my three things to be successful in business.
1. Do what you say you’re gonna do.
2. Tell the truth.
3. Pay your bills.

Just White man stuff. Good job.
Do it. Henry Ford filed for bankruptcy twice before Ford Motor Co. Perseverance and success means to keep going even if you fail. That could happen but that's how smart people learn. The Small Business Assoc and he Chamber of Commerce want to help you. Fuck yea, hire yourself. Proud of you Sir.

Hustle google reviews. Make some qr code cards that links to your business reviews for google. Whenever you have a great experience with your customers or anyone you help give them a card and tell them what you're doing. People love an underdog. They are much more eager to help a small business who's doing it right than any others. Good google reviews matter.

The hardest thing to acquire while starting a small business is good customers. Always keep that in mind while dealing with people. Everyone gets treated like they are most important.

I have a friend who owns a successful pressure wash business. He only has a facebook page. Another friend who does the same thing with one of those bounce castles for kids birthdays. Facebook and Nextdoor are cheap easy places to advertise if you don't expect a lot of web traffic.

Good luck and please share how it goes.

Open up a super secret underground whorehouse. After every bang the whore makes the dude bacon, eggs and biscuits. That'll draw'em in for sure! Also, have a gym where the hookers only train their neck muscles, their hump muscles and their room whacker muscles. That way its a level above the street.

it sounds like whatever you are going to do, its going to start off slow.

DBA is easiest if you are starting off slow without much clientele and aren’t doing anything that is has the potential to make you liable for expensive damages. you can either register a fed tax id, or use your social. your town hall should be able to help you with registration details.

you, or your customers, may want some basic general liability insurance. i’m sure its very reasonable for a small cleaning company. there is a peace of mind for customers to know you are insured. all insurance eventually leads to jew underwriters, but you might have a local agent who is white. go with the white guy and not shlomo noseburg.

seek a bulldog CPA. i have been blessed with a few enthusiastic CPAs over the years that have really helped me with tax minimization. keep your books clean and deliver to your CPA on a silver platter and that ugly side of business is taken care of nicely so you can concentrate on your clientele.

keep track of everything. i used excel spreadsheets my first few years and it worked fine. i use quickbooks because it makes professional-looking invoices. quickbooks databases are also easy to transfer to your CPA.

get a credit card you will use exclusively for business. a separate bank account for business is nice too. keep fairly good track of your vehicle mileage if you are using a personal vehicle, because you will only write off the vehicle costs you accrued over the year based on the % you used the vehicle for work. IRS can zing you on this if you don’t keep mileage records. there are lots of write-offs that you wont have to split - like your internet and cell phone bills. clothes are also largely write-offable.

i use one of those large paper desk calendars to keep track of my day-to-day business jobs, customer info and errands. go to staples or fedex and get one.

get a basic website. it does not need to be fancy at all, but you will want to learn about SEO - search engine optimization, and dance for the google jews to get your website to show up in searches and on maps. stupid shit like a regularly updated blog, and registrations on social media like nosebook, instafag, and kikedin all boost your SEO.

i believe you can operate in the red for a few years before the IRS wants to see your business making a profit.

once you have a robust clientele and can afford to pay yourself full-time minimum wage, its time to start thinking about S-Corp, as there are legal protections separating your company liabilities from your personal assets, and a lot of tax tricks. your bulldog CPA will help you at this point.

Do something boring. Own a FedEx or UPS route, laundry mat, car wash etc. I don't like food businesses but some people love em. Look up franchises not necessarily to do one, just to see what other people are doing. Also, talk to the sales people and see what they are offering. Again, just for learning. If something makes sense, do it.
Look up businesses for sale - things like mowing or snow clearing may have a huge book of existing business but the guy cant drive the truck any more. That can be a way to get a business for pennies on the dollar, but it would be owner/operator until you get a good manager.
You could build a drop shipping business (look up what drop shipping is) or maybe bundle goods like shaving gift kits to provide added value. Engraving, 3d print services... Land flipping based on late taxes(often someone died- you buy the lot, pay the taxes and flip it).
There are vids on my YouTube on all of this.

Go to your city/town etc and file with the county. Should be 50 bucks.
They will suggest the paper you can put the filing in so you are recognized as a DBA.

FUCK ALL THAT Incorporation and LLC shit until you are making money. Work as a sole proprietor can get contracts. Focus on that. For the next 30 days you want to fill each day with a job. That can be in the next month or next day. The goal is to have recurring income at the minimum 6 month contracts so you are cleaning and invoicing every 30 days.

Do a GOOD job. Do better than you would want to. Anyone and everyone can do it. Set yourself aside by being good.

Find an insurance group that does business insurance. Most do. Get quotes. Six months, pay to be incorporated or LLC whatever you want that works best for you.

A Job A Day. that's your goal. DO IT you will be happier than you ever realize and financially independent (soon) Don't fuck around. Invoice and don't let that get away from you. Next up RFP's

gay

This is what I did when I started my machine shop about three years ago.
Be dept free. Have low monthly expenses. Have enough money saved up to survive a few month or longer without going into dept.
Try and separate your personal and business financials as much as possible. Set up a separate bank account for sales taxes you are collecting. Every time I get payed, I put 13% of that into the savings account.
Hire a good accountant when it comes to tax time.

A lot of legal and tax things are very regional specific. Share your approximate location sop we can give better advice.

Stay away from Legal Zoom... Hire a lawyer.

Do you have an idea for a new product that you think might sell. Is it going to cost you a certain amount of money to manufacture that product?

If that's the case here's what you do. You make flyers and you get them into the hands of the people who you think are going to buy your product and you give them these pre-order flyers. You give them a price at what you will make money during manufacturing and you tell them the stuff will be available in 30 to 60 days or whatever your manufacturing lead time is. You do not make one single product until you have distributed these flyers. If you get orders after distributing these flyers and there are enough orders to justify manufacturing the product then you go ahead and you manufacture it and you make money and you probably form an LLC before you do it. If you do not get enough orders for your brilliant idea that you thought everybody would jump on but it turns out it's a dog because they've never had it before and nobody likes to do something new then you won't have spent any money except the money for the flyers and you write all the people who ordered and you say due to unforeseen circumstances manufacturing has been interrupted in this product will not be available thank you very much here's your refund. Personally I would suggest you don't take their money at that point but you can and then just refund it or you'll go to jail.

I start your business in a well-established market where everybody has a ton of existing demand and don't try to reinvent the wheel just get a market share of all the sales of wheels that are already out there.


To put in more practical terms start a pressure washing business or start a lawn mowing business. The demand is there and all you got to do is knock on some doors and get some customers. And let me tell you if you can't knock on doors getting customers that's going to be your whole job as a business owner and if you can't do that you better find out early and not even bother and go right back to a salary job.

Do not try to come up with some New concept that you're going to have to sell people on that they've never heard of and they've never used before and they have no real demand for it unless you can convince some of it. hell no go out there and knock on the doors and offer them old people's lawns for $5 less a month and the people that are already mowing it and a certain percentage of those people will like you because of you because the way you look the way you smile the clothes you wear or whatever and they'll hire you over the guy that they haven't liked for the last 4 months it's been mowing their lawn.

Or substitute pressure washing or any other very common service that there's a huge demand for already that people already need. And doesn't take a lot of startup money to do.

Don't get caught up in forming an LLC or a company or any of that other nonsense until you've actually got something that is making money. Concentrate on the thing that is making money in after you sure that it's going to make an income stream for yourself form the LLC or the c corporation or whatever else you're going to do and then start doing that business within that c corporation. You can even sell the rights to the stuff to the corporation etc. Yeah you'll have some tiny liability while you're starting your business but you really don't want to tie yourself up into hiring lawyers and getting on the states radar with having your business and having to file all the paperwork that you have to file quarterly with the federal government and your state if you have a business before you actually have something making money. make the money first. If you're going to go mow lawns mow a few lawns as an individual and make the money first after you got 10 accounts that are hiring you every month to mow their lawn then it's worth your while to go form the LLC or the c corporation or something else to give yourself a little bit more liability protection but don't do that first. That's a trap that everybody falls into.

You can formulate an LLC for about $100+-.

EIN is free online.

That gets you basic liability protection and business banking. Good luck.

Starting a business is a ton of bullshit.
Here's the smart way to do it.
Find SOMEBODY ELSE to start the business.
Then find ways to make yourself a partner.

Step 1: Join an angel investor group, maker space, small business class, etc.
Step 2: Keep an ear out for startups that you can legitimately contribute something useful to.
Step 3: Offer services for salary equivalent in equity/convertible loans.
Step 4: Make yourself as a member of leadership a requirement for your participation.

Look into what structure you want the business to be (sole proprietorship or LLC are most popular) and see what's required for your state for certification (depending what your business will do).

I've been involved in a few new businesses. I've recently helped someone by doing exactly what I'm about to describe and it worked well.

There's plenty of overcomplicated info out there. The path I'd recommend is to go to chatgpt or your preferred llm and say "I'm starting a new business (And describe what business you're considering). Write me an outline template for a business plan. Include examples for each section and use clear simple language because I'm learning"

It will give you a good starting point and you shouldn't have a problem filing it out. Ask it follow up questions if you don't understand a term or you're not sure what to put for a section.

Once that's done you'll have a strong sense of direction and a good idea of how to move forward and if your idea is good. You can also upload your finished document back into chatgpt and ask it to offer any advice based on what you came up with.

You should be able to get through this step in a couple days to a week.